Twice-Cooked Swiss Chard (Hui Gua Niu Pi Cai)

As much as I loved visiting Austin, my body is dying for a reboot.  I need some veggies stat!  Luckily, I saw this recipe for Swiss chard on Serious Eats a few weeks ago.  I had no idea that Fuchsia Dunlop had published a new cookbook, but once I saw that they were doing Cook the Book with her new cookbook on Serious Eats we went ahead and ordered it.  Unfortunately it hasn't come in yet, but I wasn't going to let that stop me.  I had this grand plan to add some tofu to the recipe to make it into a main dish, but Alex shot me down.  If you haven't figured it out yet, Alex usually likes to stick with the simplest possible alternative.  I'm the one who likes to complicate things.  I am the first to admit that sometimes it's for the best; sometimes I need to be reined in.  Then again, it's my humble opinion that sometimes Alex needs to live a little.

As far as reboot dishes go, this wasn't a bad one.  I thought the flavors were good and it was hearty enough that I ate it with a bowl of brown rice and found it to be pretty satisfying.  It wasn't my favorite Fuchsia Dunlop recipe ever but it was a very interesting vegetarian take on a traditional Sichuan dish (see my take on twice-cooked pork (hui guo rou) here).  I have never used Swiss chard in an Asian dish before, but due to the cooking method I think it works.  If you tried to use a more delicate green it would just fall apart but the chard (particularly the stems) stands up to the blanching and the sauteing quite well.

Recipe after the jump!

Sauteed Greens

One of my favorite stalls at the farmers' market behind the Museum of Natural History is 5 lbs of Dirt Farm.  5 lbs of Dirt is a small farm in the Hudson Valley that grows (in my opinion) some of the best lettuces, greens and other veggies that I have ever seen.  Just look at their pictures on Facebook.  They are absolutely beautiful.  I have been eying what they call "big mix" for awhile now and I decided on Sunday to go ahead and buy half a pound.  One of the ladies there assured me that it is her favorite of the greens.  She eats it raw, but said that it would be delicious sauteed.  I'm not sure exactly what is in big mix, but it looked (and tasted) like Swiss chard, kale, mustard greens, tatsoi, arugula, spinach and various crazy looking lettuces/greens.  I have no idea what some of them are.  If I had been thinking ahead I would have taken some pictures of the greens before and after cooking them so you could get a sense of what exactly was in the "big mix."  But if you're that interested, pop on over to their Facebook page where they have several pages of it.

This recipe was a nice foil for the pork schnitzel that we served with it.  I wanted something to cut through the rich, hearty schnitzel so I thought that some apple cider vinegar would be both sweet enough and acidic enough to work well to balance out the pork, while also compensating for the bitterness of some of the greens.  I briefly considered throwing in a pinch of sugar, but I decided against it because the onions and apple cider vinegar should already provide the dish with some sweetness.  I liked these greens.  Alex thought they were fine, but not amazing.  Then again, he's not a huge fan of sauteed greens.  I really like sauteed greens in theory, but I often find the greens themselves to be too bitter for me.  I thought these greens were nice because we got to experiment with the gorgeous "big mix" without being overwhelmed by the bitterness of some of the greens.  The flavors here were fresh and vibrant, with a subtle kick from the crushed red pepper flakes and the acidity from the apple cider vinegar, tempered with the richness of a tbsp of butter.  I have to admit that I stole the idea for the butter from some recipe that I stumbled across online.  It seemed like an interesting idea so I went ahead and incorporated it.

Recipe after the jump!

Baked Pork Chops with Swiss Chard

Sometimes you need a dinner that you can just throw in the oven and walk away from.  This is one of the best recipes I have found for baked pork chops.  You don't have to stuff the pork chops or babysit them.  Instead you toss a mixture of Swiss chard and cheese, and then top it with two pork chops simply seasoned with salt and pepper.  If you really want to get fancy you could brine the pork chops first, but I don't think it's totally necessary if you're using nice pork chops.  We used two organic center-cut, bone-in duBreton pork chops.  If you can find them, they are really nice - tender, juicy, and more flavorful than your average grocery store pork chop.  Even if you can't find duBreton products, you should try to get center-cut, bone-in pork chops because they really are that much tastier and the bone keeps the pork moist.  Granted, they take a little longer to cook, but it's well worth the extra few minutes of cooking time.  Anyway, this recipe came from a basic Food & Wine recipe that we first made about two years ago.  The first time we made it, it was a little bland.  When you managed to get a little bit of everything in one bite, it was pretty good, but the individual components were a little boring.  So we jazzed it up a little by adding onions, crushed red pepper flakes, garlic and more cheese.  Those simple additions made all of the difference.  This dish is something that I would serve for any family dinner.  It's relatively healthy (with lean pork instead of a fattier meat and a mountain of Swiss chard), quick and easy to throw together, and very tasty.

Recipe after the jump!

Salt-and-Pepper Shrimp with Sauteed Greens with Bacon

Today I made an expedition down to Chelsea Market, which is one of my favorite foodie meccas in NYC that I rarely visit.  I'm not really sure why we never go down there, except that it is kind of a trek and somehow I just forget about it.  But I had to make the trip down there to pick up some meat I ordered from Dickson's Farmstand Meats.  While I was there I was like a kid in a candy store today.  I came home with all sorts of things - cheese from Lucy's Whey, an assortment of Italian ingredients from Buon Italia (guanciale, bottarga, and calamari-shaped pasta anyone?), seafood from The Lobster Place, a raspberry-basil popsicle from People's Pops (well that didn't make it home, but it was delicious), and a ton of meat from Dickson's (duck breasts, a variety of sausages, bacon, ground beef, etc.).  I actually had to talk myself out of buying raw oysters, marrow bones, and all sorts of other fun goodies.  A girl can only spend so much on groceries in one day!  And as it was, I could barely carry all of my purchases home.

So I got home around 6pm and had to figure out what to do with all of my purchases.  One of my most exciting purchases was a pound of wild, never frozen, Georgia shrimp.  When you get shrimp that good you can cook it super simply and it still shines.  I figured who would know better how to cook nice Georgia shrimp than the Lee Brothers, who grew up in Charleston, SC and include a whole page of "Shrimp Shopping Notes" in their Simple Fresh Southern: Knockout Dishes with Down-Home Flavor cookbook.  The recipe that immediately caught my eye was "Salt-and-Pepper Shrimp" - which looked super simple and delicious.  And the recipe delivered - it only required 6 ingredients, including the shrimp, and was ready in less than 10 minutes.  Plus it was seriously tasty.

To go with our shrimp I wanted to come up with a vaguely Southern dish of sauteed or braised greens.  This week we got 1/2 a pound of Russian white kale, and 1/2 a lb. of Swiss chard from our CSA.  It wasn't quite enough of either green to build a meal entirely around it, but combined I had more than enough for a nice side dish.  To give the greens a flavor boost and make them feel more Southern, I added some bacon to my usual sauteed greens ingredients of crushed red pepper flakes, onions and garlic.  The bacon gave the greens an additional layer of flavor, as did the heat from the red pepper flakes.  It was the perfect side dish - one I definitely plan on serving again.

Recipes after the jump!

Sauteed Swiss Chard over Quinoa

 

After a few gluttonous weeks, I felt the need for a simple, vegetarian meal with whole grains.  I knew I wanted to use quinoa as the grain and after scanning my stash from the CSA I figured I would use some Swiss chard and throw in some garlic scapes for fun.  I also thought about poaching one of the farm fresh eggs that I also picked up from the CSA, but decided that was more ambitious than necessary.  However, I have done almost this exact same sauteed Swiss chard recipe over toasted crusty bread and topped it with a poached egg and it was delicious.

Recipe after the jump!

Tunisian Soup with Chard and Egg Noodles

So our best friend Mark came to visit, which is great because we love Mark.  And also because when he is in town we eat great food and give Mark a tour of our favorite NYC restaurants, bars, etc.  It has become a tradition that every time he comes to visit, he gets off the bus in NYC on Friday, takes a cab to our apartment, and we head straight to Fatty Crab UWS where we get the steamed buns, the sliders, the wonton mee, the watermelon pickle with pork belly, and whatever else strikes our fancy.  This time we tried the Malay fish fry and the fried chicken (which was so ridiculously good).  Then Saturday for lunch we hit Ippudo for ramen, and then Yakitori Totto for dinner.  Both were sickeningly good.  I will be dreaming about the special spicy ramen at Ippudo, as well as the tsukune (chicken meatballs), the chicken wings, and the negi tori don (charcoal broiled chicken thighs and scallion with raw egg over white rice) from Yakitori Totto for weeks to come.  If you live in NYC and haven't been to either place yet, you really need to get over there.  They are delicious.  In between all of these delicious Asian meals we were snacking on cookies from Levain Bakery, and more cookies and soft serve from Momofuku Milk Bar.  Then we finished off our dining extravaganza on Sunday with brunch at B. Cafe for burgers, croque monsieurs (or madames) and french fries.  Aside from breakfast, it was our only non-Asian meal of the weekend, which is how things typically go when Mark comes up to visit.

So while all of that food we consumed this weekend was crazy delicious, now I feel like a python who swallowed a whole cow - all lethargic and sleepy.  That burger Sunday afternoon might have put me over the edge.  After that meal Alex and I both had to hit the gym.  Later Sunday night we didn't have the energy to cook so we got delivery.  So for tonight's dinner I wanted something light and vegetarian.  After a particularly gluttonous weekend, vegetarian just seems like the way to go.  And since it is still cool outside, soup sounded like a great option.  This soup manages to be both light and hearty at the same time.  The spiciness of the harissa and the smokiness of the toasted cumin seeds give the soup some serious flavor.  I modified the recipe to add more Swiss chard, more noodles, and a bit more chicken stock.  I love chickpeas, but I think that the Swiss chard is more where it's at with this soup.  I like the chickpeas and all, but they don't absorb the flavors of the soup the way that the chard and the noodles do.  I love soup.

Recipe after the jump!